Music and People

Last weekend was an interesting experience in music and people.  Friday night our whole family went to The Phoenix Dream Center for their Friday evening "fun night" where our dear friend and the boys guitar teacher performed in concert.  A good portion of the audience was men and women who are part of the ministry "Church on the Street", they are recovering from addictions, desperate for God and real about their struggles and authentic about their extreme need for God.  It was a refreshing experience.  One gal got up and through tears shared how hard and painful life has been, yet how God was slowly healing her, her desperation was obvious, but not uncomfortable.  She chose to praise God, to choose to believe God was good, even though life had dealt her some very difficult circumstances.  To see people so moved by God, by the truth being sung in Jason's lyrics, so needing reminders that God loved them, and so stirred in Him that many made their way to the altar and collapsed, crying out to God, was nothing short of beautiful.  I loved being in the room with these people, loved their realness, their rawness and their transparency.  At one point during the night, another singer commented that the feeling in the room was like what we see in other countries with people that have so little, but are so happy to be with God.  It made me wonder what keeps our churches from being like this every week? What keeps me from collapsing at His feet in worship?


The next night, I was invited by a good friend to a unique Birthday celebration.  My friend's friend turned 40 and her unique way of celebrating was by having a meeting at her church, she invited many friends and family, then she proceeded to share her testimony through words and song. She gave part of her story, then stopped and played certain songs that applied to that part of her story, this gal could sing, I mean really sing!  It was a gospel concert and I loved it.  One of the songs she sang during a climatic part of her testimony was the song in the video below, "Break Every Chain".  I have heard this song a few times and instantly loved the power of the words, the truth spoken in them.  She had us all singing the words, getting caught up in the worship of Him who has the ability to break every chain that binds us and chains that binds those we love.  She ended her story with the song "Smile" by Kirk Franklin, another feel good song that makes you want to just get a little charismatic-crazy!  I had never met this gal before, but as I got to know her through her words and song, I found myself loving her, thinking she was so beautiful, so gifted, so using her talents to glorify Him.  I asked her later what gave her the idea because it was such a unique expression.  She said she had went to a cancer-survivor event and heard people sharing their story, that was her inspiration.  

Music and people, two different ways God encourages us.  Music comforts, soothes, exhorts, and encourages. People inspire us and glorify God when they share how God uses their unique set of circumstances to reveal Himself through them, when they tell how they overcame, persevered, and make a conscious choice to believe God even when His ways are hard to understand. I'm thankful for both.  God uses both music and people to minister His love and truth in my life, sometimes it's what gets me through times that can seem so overwhelming in a world that can seem so dark. We all have trials and on-going circumstances that can get burdensome, yet we know we need to persevere, I think God gave us music and people as a means to help us do that, so that we hope against hope.